Friday, July 12, 2013

Lac-Mégantic and the Callousness of the Cons

As people in the shattered little town of Lac-Mégantic try to recover from the terrifying tragedy that struck their town.Try to come to terms with the fact that the bodies of many of their loved ones may never be found.As all over Canada people who live near railway lines wonder if they will be next.The Con chairman of the House of Commons transport committee says it's "premature" to discuss rail safety.“What is the committee going to meet about? We have no results out of the investigation,” said Larry Miller, who represents the Ontario riding of Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound.And shrugs off this damning report: In a 2011 report, the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, inside the auditor general’s office, pointed to long-standing weaknesses in the government’s oversight of the transportation of dangerous goods.Miller said the fact that Transport Canada hasn’t met the recommendations is “another issue altogether.”
“It’s not connected to this train derailment,” he said.
But then why am I not surprised eh?When Larry Miller is the one who thought the greatest threat to Canadians was the GUN REGISTRY...

You know, good old redneck Larry, who believes that those who support gun control are NAZIS...

Oh boy. It would still be funny, if it now wasn't so tragic.But then that's the Harper Cons. Who would claim that they're making Canada safer by flooding our streets with unregistered weapons. While not lifting a finger to save us from being incinerated in our sleep.It's almost unbelievable eh? How callous and irresponsible can they be?But they should know this: Today we mourn the dead of poor little Lac-Mégantic.But tomorrow we will REMEMBER.And drive those ghastly redneck Cons and their depraved leader from power.Before they kill us ALL...

6 comments:

'“What is the committee going to meet about? We have no results out of the investigation,” said Larry Miller'

Gee, Larry. Maybe you could rescind the Reform party order that allowed this rail company to leave an unsecured train full of explosive substances idling on the track, unsupervised by a qualified engineer, that led to the deaths of fifty Canadians? And for what? A few more dollars for the executives and shareholders of the rail company? A few more dollars in Reform party coffers? Enough.

hi anonymous...yes good points. You might think that Larry might at the very least act to implement those two-year old recommendations on how to improve railway safety. But of course he won't because Big Rail tells the Cons what to do just like Big Oil. And of course, as we all know, Larry isn't too bright...

As for callousness, the recent Lac Megantic rail disaster provided the opportunity for a horde of bigots to voice their hatred and contempt towards Quebec in Yahoo Canada discussions of the disaster, to which I made my own contributions :

"The prime purpose of condolences, if genuine, is to offer them to those immediately affected by a tragedy, in this case the population of Lac Megantic who are overwhelmingly francophone, and if genuine to offer such condolences in a language they understand, rather than to address the legion of Quebec-haters on Yahoo and similar forums in the language they prefer and offer condolences for a loss they in no way regret ...."

and again"It's a question of common courtesy, which is sorely lacking with many Yahoo contributors. If the disaster had occurred in Sunderland, Ontario, would it have been appropriate for the company responsible for the disaster to address communications to the local populace in a language other than that which they use themselves for their own communications..."

and again"The height of ignorance would be to avail oneself of an incident such as one of the country's worst rail disasters to communicate nothing more meaningful than one's hatred of the victims involved ...."

and again""Elite ...sheeple"... Your sympathies are already quite evident, referring to Quebecers as "frogs", making ignorant comments as to the dominant languages and cultures of "North Americans". North America is a continent, as is Europe, with multiple cultures and languages. Offer your advice regarding cultural isolation to the Dutch, the Danish, the Swedes. Harper may be a mouthpiece for the oil industry and corporate elites, but at least he had the good grace, courtesy and respect to address the local populace affected by the disaster in their own language, which is more than can be said for the Yahoo fringe which stands to the right of Harper on almost all issues ...."

and again"As to the "blah blah blah ... who cares". The residents of Lac Megantic do care, that is the culture they have embraced and that is how they prefer to live their lives in Canada, which for many have been cut short as a result of this tragedy. As for the contingent of blah blahers, they evidently do care as well as they have chosen to voice their alleged condolences to the victims wrapped in outspoken contempt and disdain for their cultural preferences of the victims...."

and again"And what would be the point of discussing the irrational hatred and contempt of one individual towards a different existing culture and society, except to point out its irrational and contemptible nature. Quebec is certainly not going to cease to exist to appease the desires of those such as Busmandave72..."

hi Rene...and all good contributions too. Those anti-Quebec bigots are truly revolting.Even a tragedy can't shut them up. But then they're so damn ignorant they don't know of what they speak. I've been to Lac-Mégantic many times, and I still can't believe that such a horrible thing could happen to such a peaceful town as that one...

So what do Harper government apologists say about the recent Lac Megantic disaster. In response to a recent column by Heather Mallick in the Toronto Star entitled "Lac-Mégantic train crash proves engineers shouldn’t work alone", one presumed Harper minion with the curious alias "johnny.liberal" claims :

"It is completely irresponsible for Heather Mallick to blame the cause of the accident on the 'god of cheap'."

"The executives of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway know a lot more than she does about running a railway, and you can be sure that no one would have intentionally allowed a staffing decision to be made that would add significant risk to the possibility of such an accident."

"Ms. Mallick should take a job in a competitive industry and take an economics course or two to broaden her knowledge of capitalism and economics before attempting to comment about such matters."

"Before condemning capitalism (Mallick's so-called 'god of cheap') she should also reflect on the alternatives: Does she prefer communism like in the failed USSR, or the failed state Cuba which is now experimenting with capitalism, or North Korea, which cannot even feed itself?"

"For Mallick to condemn a competitive economy as the 'god of cheap' only shows her profound ignorance of the subject."

I am sure the liability insurers of Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway have a somewhat different opinion as to the staffing decisions and expertise of MMA management in running a railway, that is how to create disaster on an unprecedented scale and run a business into bankruptcy.

Note how Conservative apologists always work with two extremes, a free for all unregulated capitalism harkening back to the dark days of primitive capitalist accumulation and the industrial revolution or "communism". As if nothing lies in between, as if a capitalist economy cannot be regulated so as to make it socially responsible, that one cannot achieve a balance and mix between socially responsible public and private sectors of the economy, that all efforts to regulate irresponsible and unsafe industries amounts to "communism" .....

hi Rene...yes that is the way of the true fanatic. Hot or cold but nothing in between. But that Cold War wingnut should understand this: Or capitalism will rein itself in, or it will destroy itself. For any system that profits a few, while degrading or endangering the lives of many, will not last long...